Publications

Web

Building From the Bottom Up - Managing the Future of Work

shippers, grocery clerks, servers, healthcare assistants, housekeepers, and janitors. Despite working long hours in difficult jobs, many of these workers are trapped in positions with low wages and little or no prospects for advancement.... View Details

September 2020
Article

The Rise of the Investor State: State Capital in the Chinese Economy

By: Meg Rithmire and Hao Chen

The nature and extent of the role of the Chinese state in the economy is fundamental to many empirical and theoretical debates about that country’s political economy. We document and explain the rise of a novel form of intervention on the part of the Chinese state: the... View Details

Keywords: China's Political Economy; State Shareholding; State-business Relations; State Capitalism; China's Financial System; Economy; Business and Government Relations; Finance; System; China

02 Aug 2011
Working Paper Summaries

To Groupon or Not to Groupon: The Profitability of Deep Discounts

Keywords: by Benjamin Edelman, Sonia Jaffe & Scott Duke Kominers; Retail; Technology

July – August 2009
Article

Preferential Treatment: The New Face of Protectionism?

Free trade agreements have increased dramatically over the past decade. This forethought considers how they present global executives with thorny strategic and operational decisions, a piece of which has to do with China's entry into the FTA scene. View Details

Keywords: Agreements and Arrangements; Trade; Strategy; Operations; Decisions; Practice; China

2011
Working Paper

Cyclicality of Credit Supply: Firm Level Evidence

By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina

Theory predicts that there is a close link between bank credit supply and the evolution of the business cycle. Yet fluctuations in bank-loan supply have been hard to quantify in the time-series. While loan issuance falls in recessions, it is not clear if this is due to... View Details

Keywords: Business Cycles; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Banks and Banking; Bonds; Financial Markets; Financing and Loans; Banking Industry

SSRN

Read Now

12 Oct 2017
Working Paper Summaries

The Decline of Big-Bank Lending to Small Business: Dynamic Impacts on Local Credit and Labor Markets

Keywords: by Brian S. Chen, Samuel G. Hanson, and Jeremy C. Stein; Banking

2017
Book

Democracy: A Case Study

By: David Moss

Democracy: A Case Study invites readers to experience American history anew and come away with a deeper understanding of the greatest strengths and vulnerabilities of the nation’s democracy as well as its resilience over time. The book adapts the case method to... View Details

Keywords: Democracy; Political Economy; Constitution; Productive Tension; Culture Of Democracy; E Pluribus Unum; United States; History; Government and Politics; Governance; Economic Systems; United States

March 2001 (Revised July 2001)
Background Note

Making Sense of the Internet Business Landscape

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Discusses the shift from the industrial to the information economy from a technological, business, and societal perspective. Compares the changes we are experiencing today with the changes experienced during the shift from the agrarian to the industrial age at the turn... View Details

Keywords: Transition; Economy; Information; Perspective; Society; Internet

Educators

2025
Chapter

An Appraisal on 'Teaching the Early History of IB at Harvard Business School'

By: Geoffrey Jones

This chapter reviews new research about the origins of International Business as an academic discipline. Contrary to conventional wisdom that it orginated in economics departments in the 1960s, this research highlights the importance of teaching at Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: Harvard Business School; International Business; Business Education

19 Sep 2023
HBS Case

How Will the Tech Titans Behind ChatGPT, Bard, and LLaMA Make Money?

says. “I think the basic economics of a generative AI are being overlooked.” In an interview, Wu discusses the challenging economics View Details

Keywords: by Ben Rand; Technology; Information Technology

01 Dec 2015
News

Sharing Knowledge of Innovation in India

Naveen Tewari (MBA 2005) When Naveen Tewari (MBA 2005) arrived on campus in 2003, his native India had not yet become the economic powerhouse it is today, a fact reflected in the limited number of HBS cases... View Details

2012
Chapter

The Availability and Utilization of 401(k) Loans

By: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson and Brigitte C. Madrian

We document the loan provisions in 401(k) savings plans and how participants use 401(k) loans. Although only about 22% of savings plan participants who are allowed to borrow from their 401(k) have such a loan at any given point in time, almost half had used a 401(k)... View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Personal Finance; Retirement; Financing and Loans; Microeconomics

Read Now

May 1997
Case

Center for Women & Enterprise: Looking for a Director of Development with "The Scrappiness Factor"

By: Thomas J. Kosnik and Natalie Zakarian

Andrea Silbert is founder of the Center for Women & Enterprise, a nonprofit with a mission to empower women to become economically self-sufficient and prosperous through entrepreneurship. She must select a new senior sales executive, decide how to share... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Selection and Staffing; Entrepreneurship

Educators

16 Apr 2001
Research & Ideas

Making the Most of Government Upheaval

According to Oliva and Suarez, YPF, Argentina's formerly state-owned oil company, is one example of a company's transformation following economic reform. Unlike Chile, which modified its View Details

Keywords: by Nancy O. Perry

06 Dec 2021
News

HBS Curricula Explore the Complexities of Innovation

degrees in mechanical engineering and economics at Yale and then worked in tech investments at Morgan Stanley and as a project manager at Microsoft. But what Hopkins hoped to learn from the course taught by Shane Greenstein, the Martin... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

16 Mar 2018
News

Enabling The Pursuit of Entrepreneurial Dreams

Grace Ng (MBA 2019) Grace Ng (MBA 2019) Drawing on her left- and right-brain strengths, Grace Ng (MBA 2019) double-majored in economics and film at Rice University. “That might seem unusual to some, but I found having these two interests... View Details

26 Sep 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Playing Favorites: How Firms Prevent the Revelation of Bad News

Keywords: by Lauren Cohen, Dong Lou & Christopher Malloy; Financial Services

2025
Working Paper

Blockchain-Induced Supply Chain Transparency and Firm Performance: The Role of Capacity Utilization

By: ShinWoo Lee Lee, Jedson Pinto, Daniel Rabetti and Gil Sadka

This study empirically investigates how blockchain adoption affects firm profitability. Employing a quasi-experimental design triggered by regulatory changes across the United States, we provide novel empirical evidence to recent theory, proposing that blockchain... View Details

Keywords: Blockchain; Supply Chain; Technology Adoption; Profit; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; United States